Judge drops Padilla terror charge

I guess they didn't torture him enough. Oh I forgot, "we don't torture".

Seems the neo cons lies are falling apart. :eek:

Wouldn't surprise me if you heard that a while from now that the good judge "suicided", as per usual CIA democratic principles...

Judge drops Padilla terror charge

CNN | August 21 2006

A federal judge in Miami on Monday dismissed a terror count against Jose Padilla, the U.S. citizen once identified as a "dirty bomb" suspect and detained as an "enemy combatant."

U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke said in a written opinion that the charge -- conspiracy to "murder, kidnap and maim persons in a foreign country" -- duplicated other counts in a federal grand jury indictment handed down last year.

"An indictment is multiplicitous when it charges a single offense multiple times, in separate counts," Cooke wrote. As charged, she added, the indictment exposes Padilla and his co-defendants to multiple punishments for a single crime.

The indictment, Cooke noted, "alleges one and only one conspiracy" and that the same facts are "re-alleged in each of the consecutive counts."

Cooke also ruled that a second count against Padilla and his co-defendants was "duplicitous" -- charging them with the same offense under two sections of federal law. She ordered the government to choose between the two counts, which provide for different penalties, by Friday.

The counts in question are conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, and providing material support to terrorists.

''We stand by the charges in this indictment and will respond after a full review of the court's order," U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta said.

Padilla has pleaded not guilty to the indictment, and a trial is scheduled early next year.

Padilla was arrested in May 2002 returning from overseas at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. He initially was detained as a material witness in the investigation of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

President Bush designated him an enemy combatant the next month and turned him over to the military.

Padilla, who the government alleges has al Qaeda ties, was added to the South Florida indictment in November. Two co-defendants -- Adham Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi -- also have pleaded not guilty.

A fourth defendant, Mohamed Hesham Yousef, is in custody in Egypt. The whereabouts of a fifth defendant, Kassem Daher, is not known.

The indictment alleges the men belonged to a North American terrorist support cell and intended to carry out jihad, or holy war, in foreign countries.

Padilla was originally accused of -- but never charged with -- being a potential "dirty bomber," plotting to detonate a crude radioactive device in the United States, and later scheming to blow up apartment buildings using natural gas.

The Brooklyn-born Padilla has previously served prison terms for juvenile murder in Illinois and gun possession in Florida. He converted to Islam when he moved to Egypt in 1998, taking the name Abdullah al-Muhajir.

According to the government, Padilla trained at al Qaeda military camps in Afghanistan in 2000, after being recruited by a Yemeni man he met on a pilgrimage to Mecca.

From the Daily Mail: Rashid Rauf, whose detention in Pakistan was the trigger for the arrest of 23 suspects in Britain, has been accused of taking orders from Al Qaedaâs âNo3â in Afghanistan and sending money back to the UK to allow the alleged bombers to buy plane tickets. But after two weeks of interrogation, an inch-by-inch search of his house and analysis of his home computer, officials are now saying that his extradition is âa way down the trackâ if it happens at all.

It comes amid wider suspicions that the plot may not have been as serious, or as far advanced, as the authorities initially claimed. Analysts suspect Pakistani authorities exaggerated Raufâs role to appear âtough on terrorismâ and impress Britain and America.

A spokesman for Pakistanâs Interior Ministry last night admitted that âextradition at this time is not under considerationâ.

You need to read the facts of the Jose Padilla news item more carefully.
One charge was dropped by the judge out of an 11-count indictment because it "duplicated other counts in a federal grand jury indictment handed down last year."
Even CBS news reported that the dropping of this charge has "little practical effect on the pending criminal case" against Jose Padilla.

Given Padilla's violent criminal background (he was once convicted of murder), his Islamic conversion which was much more than just a jailhouse flirtation and his travels to the Middle East, he's a good bet to be guilty and the G knows he's guilty. Sadly it appears the evidence though is weak and circumstantial. Hence the prolonged period of incarceration before the indictment with the proffer offering less than the original allegations.

It's funny. There's thousands in prison on the most trumped up of drug charges, i.e. guys who were holding an 8 ball but convicted of the harsher "distribution" charge and the media has shit to say. However the willful incompetence surrounding the manner Padilla was held ect. has now given the media and the Left blind ammo and made a potential terrorist a martyr. And we wonder how the Arabs are able to elevate these scumbags to Sainthood......

I predicted this type of bull shit would happen running up to the elections in America. Note how quickly the American President Dick Cheney went on TV in support of the ZioNazi Liebermann. Expect more of it, and if this bull shit fails to "stir" the masses into epileptic convulsions of Fear, be fully prepared for another CIA prepared crime against humanity.

Maybe this time the Criminal Intelligence Agents will figure out how to drop a passport from 1000 ft in the air and make sure it at least gets a few visible scratches to show to the reporters who will be conveniently on hand.